The Esports World Cup 2025 wrapped up last week after seven weeks of competition, hitting more than 750 million broadcast viewers and eight billion impressions.
The global esports showcase held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, spanned 25 tournaments, where more than 2,500 players and staff from around the world competed for a share of the $70 million prize pool, said the Esports World Cup Foundation in a post on the numbers today.
I was in Riyadh in the closing days of the cup and was impressed with how much more activity there was, including participation from the highest Saudi officials. The game industry leadership was heavily represented at the accompanying Next Generation Sports Conference, a business event in Riyadh where we were a media partner.
It’s a place where people are braving the heat and sands in part because of the wealth but also because the Middle East is one of the regional markets where gaming and esports are thriving. The people who are paying for games and items in games are there.
It’s a place of 420 million people and many countries where geopolitics is always front and center, but the joy of gaming is also there. Market researcher Niko Partners said the MENA-3 video game market (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt) generated total revenue of $1.92 billion in 2023, up 7.8% YoY, with the number expected to rise to $2.65 billion in 2027 at a 5-year CAGR of 8.2%
This year’s event continued to attract high-level leaders to Saudi Arabia, including Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and Death Stranding 2 creator Hideo Kojima, CEO of Kojima Productions.
Team Falcons claimed the Club Championship Trophy and the $7 million grand prize. The award was presented to Musaad AlDossar, CEO of Team Falcons, by HRH Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, with international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo delivering the trophy to the closing ceremony stage. The crown prince also became the chairman of the Esports World Cup Foundation.
EWC 2025 lit up eight festival venues and four arenas, the equivalent of nine football pitches filled with competition, emotion and entertainment. More than three million visitors attended Riyadh Boulevard, joined by world-class musicians, athletes and creators, EWC said. That was up from 2.6 million a year ago.
The new Content Creator Park hosted over 30 mainstage shows, with more than 50 partners delivering activations and experiences that generated 8 billion impressions and 2 billion video views across EWC channels.
Broadcasts reached 750 million viewers, making EWC 2025 the most-watched edition to date. Esports arenas were sold out, welcoming hundreds of thousands of fans, including 2,000 Super Fans who travelled to Riyadh to cheer on their favorite teams.
The foundation said the viewership saw a peak of 7.98 million viewers during Gen.G Esports’ dominant victory in Week 2’s League of Legends tournament – and 350 million hours watched, outperforming 2024’s inaugural event across the board.
Global media interest was unprecedented, with more than 4,000 outlets covering the esports action and publishing over 30,000 articles worldwide.
The EWC will return to Riyadh next summer, from July 6 to August 23, 2026. Meanwhile, the Esports Nations Cup, based on teams from individual countries, will kick off in November.
After seven weeks of fierce competition that came down to the final weekend of play, Team Falcons amassed 5,200 points across 22 tournaments, including victories in Overwatch 2 and top finishes in Dota 2, Chess, PUBG Battlegrounds, Rocket League and Counter-Strike 2. Team Liquid (4,200 points), Team Vitality (4,050 points), Twisted Minds (3,200 points) and Virtus.pro (3,200 points) rounded out the top five of the final Club Championship ranking.
The foundation said the EWC 2025 blurred the lines between sport, culture, and entertainment, featuring Ronaldo, Carlsen, Tony Hawk, Lando Norris, Gerard Piqué, Ronaldo Nazário, Kaká, Alisha Lehmann, Nick Kyrgios, David Harbour, Gabe Basso, Daniel Sturridge, creators like the Sidemen, and even a rare appearance by game creator Hideo Kojima.
EWC Spotlight, a new global broadcast production, turned the EWC into a weekly spectacle, showcasing these global celebrities on one stage, while bringing the passion of the live crowd to audiences everywhere. In total, 7,000 hours of live content were produced, second only to the 2024 Paris Olympics, across more than 800 channels and 97 broadcast partners, reaching fans around the world in 35 languages.
The brands and other supporters were also there. The founding partners for the EWC included stc group, Qiddiya, Jameel Motorsport and Sony Group Corp (Sony). Other brand supporters were AlBaik, Amazon, Aramco, Barn’s, Cenomi, Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib, Hilton, HONOR, Lenovo, OBSBOT, PepsiCo, Saudi Airlines, Saudi Tourism Authority, Secretlab and Spotify.
Disclosure: The Next Generation Sports Conference paid my way to Riyadh.